• ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    being poor in a fantasy setting

    I'm imagining a world where spell components are only affordable to the uber wealthy, and everyone else born with magic either has to get a job as a magic cop/troop or never get to use their powers (and in fact it's illegal to try).

    • Alex_Jones [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      There are a few stories like that. I heard there's one where a single ruler who can allocate magic to others and the wealthy surround and pamper them in exchange for power.

      Fantasy has so much potential to explore things like wealth and class. It's a shame that jkr is the extent to which most people know the genre.

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        a single ruler who can allocate magic to others

        Reminds me of Reincarnated as a Slime, where the main character can dish out a portion of their power by giving low-ranking monsters a name. Naturally they go out of their way to give names to everyone they can because why would you horde something so beneficial?

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Or you could have a conflict between the legal magic of the Oxbridge fancylads at Hogwarts and the illegal magic of impoverished rural witches, nomadic fortune tellers and immigrant sorcerers who can't afford a license to do magic.

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I was thinking the big twist partway through the story is that there are no "magical people" at all, and that what you actually need to cast spells is enough people in one place who all want the spell to happen. Cop and troop spells are easy to cast because the bourgeois have class solidarity, but once the proletariat is similarly unified the horizons become literally infinite.

        It's a bit on the nose as far as metaphors go, but I like it.